I’d like to talk to you this morning about the key to friendship with God, the key to having God responsive to your prayers and using you to lead others to salvation, the key to your own lasting happiness and success. And for a person to go through life in this world and miss this one key would be the greatest tragedy that could ever happen to them. The key is one word, many don’t like this word, but it’s a gracious invitation, the word is – repentance.
I want to begin with two passages in the book of Luke in which Jesus talks about…
How vital repentance is
And we’ll see with this first one, Jesus did not preach to entertain or make people feel good about themselves. He loved them too much for that. He preached to save them.
Luke 13:1-5, “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” The people here speaking to Jesus were reporting headline news at the time. Soldiers sent by Pilate came into the Jewish temple complex and executed certain Galileans while they were worshiping God and engaged in offering sacrifices. So the blood of these Galileans mingled with the blood of the animals they’d sacrificed. Jesus knows what some of the people are thinking. They’re thinking those Galileans must have been especially bad people for something so horrible to happen to them. “2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Whoa! He tells them they are all headed to a similar fate unless they do this one thing – repent. Then for emphasis Jesus brings up another well-known tragedy of the day. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Repentance is the only way any of us can avoid perishing.
Then Jesus told them a parable, Luke 13:6-9, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'” God is waiting for good fruit from our lives, the fruit of repentance, the adjustments in our attitude, character and conduct that results from repentance. He wishes for no one to perish. He would much rather that they bear fruit and live, and He patiently gives us some time to do that. And like the farmer, He will dig around the tree and apply fertilizer, God will work in our lives to motivate us to repent and bear the fruit of righteousness. I suspect He’s doing that this morning for some people with this lesson. He’s applying fertilizer. But He will not wait forever. He designated a certain number of years for every one of us and if no fruit is found by the end of those years (and none of us know how many years we have), God’s judgment is “Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?” So the message there in three words is “repent or perish.”
Luke 24:46-47, after Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to His disciples, He showed them a bunch of stuff they never realized before in the Scriptures about Himself. He concluded the study saying, verse 46, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” So what is the message the whole world needs to hear? The message is that Jesus who was crucified has been raised from the dead and He is the Christ, the Messiah, the One God has chosen to be king and judge of all. All authority is His. It’s given to Him to decide what happens to everyone. And king Jesus has decreed that everyone in every nation who repents will receive forgiveness of their sins. And of course forgiveness of sins comes with a whole host of other blessings as well. When there’s no longer sin between us and God, then He pours out on us the immeasurable riches of His grace in all sorts of ways. This is the message: God has made Jesus king and King Jesus decrees forgiveness for all who repent.
I’ve noticed that for many, repentance is just a fancy church word. Some suspect it means to feel some remorse over your sin and maybe includes asking for forgiveness or doing a ritual of some sort. So I want to define what we’re talking about this morning.
Definition
Repentance is not an emotion. It’s not a feeling of remorse or a guilty conscience. It’s a decision of the will.
There are two main languages of the Bible: Hebrew of the OT and Greek of the NT. Each of those languages had a specific word for repent. They each emphasize a different aspect of repentance. The Greek word focuses on what happens inside us when we repent. The Hebrew word focuses on the outward action that results from the inner decision. The Greek word metanoeo simply means to change your mind. Repentance is changing your mind about how you’ve been living. It’s to decide, “I’ve been doing things my way and not God’s way, pleasing myself and not Him. I have been wrong. From now on I’m going to seek to do things God’s way.” The Hebrew word shuwb means to turn, to turn back or turn around. You’ve been heading one way, the wrong way, with your back to God. You turn around, you face toward God and you go His way as best you know how.
When you put the two terms from the original languages together, you have the complete picture of repentance. Inwardly you change your mind about how you’ve been living. Outwardly you turn from your way to go God’s way.
Who needs to repent?
Many say, “I’m not a bad person. I don’t see that I’m doing anything really wrong. I don’t see what I need to repent of.” But let me show you what God says.
Acts 17:30 the apostle Paul preaching as God’s representative to a gathering in Athens said, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” God commands everybody everywhere to repent.
Why? Because as Isaiah 53:6 puts it, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” We may not have all committed murder or adultery or theft. But there’s one thing we have all done. We have all gone our own way. We’ve all done our own thing. But our ways are not God’s ways. God’s very clear about that. A little further in Isaiah at 55:8 God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” And when we go our own way instead of God’s, it is iniquity. It’s rebellion. It is putting our will before the will of Him who made us, takes care of us, the one we owe everything to. Now, Christ paid the penalty on the cross for all our iniquity that we might be forgiven, but He requires that we repent of going our way instead of His.
So everyone must come to repentance. And the need to repent continues thereafter as often as we find ourselves out of harmony with the will of God.
Repentance is always followed by appropriate actions.
In the NT there is one act that is directly and initially associated with repentance and it is the act of being baptized in water.
This began with John the Baptist who prepared people’s hearts for Jesus. He preached a message of repentance and the outward act required of all who repented was that they be baptized.
When Jesus was risen from the dead and made King, He likewise commanded baptism as the initiation into a new life with Him. So let me read to you how the apostle Peter responded when sinners asked what they were to do when they were convicted of their sins and realized who Jesus is. Acts 2:36, picking up here with the conclusion of Peter’s message to them, ““Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” [What’s a sinner to do? Say a prayer? Join a church? Become religious?] 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Now of course, other actions beside baptism will also follow repentance. But they may vary from person to person because our life situations are different. John the Baptist gave some examples in his preaching in Luke 3. He said if you see a man who has inadequate clothing and you have two tunics, true repentance means you give him one of your tunics. If you see someone hungry and you have food, you give him some food. John told tax collectors that repentance for them means that they have to quit ripping people off. They have to start dealing fairly and honestly with people. He told soldiers that repentance for them means they have to stop extorting money from people by threats and false accusation, and be content with their wages. For the church gossip who goes around telling about the faults of others and poisoning the atmosphere, repentance means she ceases to do that. For the thief it means he restores what he stole and then some for the trouble.
Somebody might be thinking, “Wait a minute! I thought we were saved if we just believe in Jesus.” Isn’t that what the golden text of the Bible says? John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Well, that’s actually what I’m saying this morning. This is what it means to truly believe in Jesus. In Scripture, to believe in someone means to trust them enough to give up doing things your way, to do things their way. A mere intellectual acceptance to some facts about Jesus that has no effect on your life is not believing in Jesus as far as the Bible is concerned. That’s believing something about Jesus. Believing in Jesus means you repent, you surrender, you make Him Lord of your life.
Blind Spots
Most people have blind spots. We have areas of our lives where we have sin but we don’t see it. God’s word is pictured in James 1 as a mirror, because it will show us how we really are, show us our blind spots and expose areas in which we still need to repent.
I want to give you 3 examples of typical blind spots among Christians, and then end with the most beautiful and moving picture I know of repentance, and how God responds to it.
One common blind spot I’ve seen too often in Christians is unforgiveness… Holding resentment, bitterness, or a grudge toward someone. Christians who carry unforgiveness in their heart do not see how serious that is and what it’s costing them.
Jesus said our situation is basically like this. If anyone has hurt, wronged, offended, abused, neglected or cheated you, you have in your hands a sheet of “I owe yous” from that person. Every one of those is a legitimate debt. If you’re a wife who had a lousy husband who mistreated you, then you have in your hands a sheet of “I owe yous” from your husband. “I owe you apologies. I owe you love. I owe you affection. I owe you years of kindness and service for the years I took from you.” Every one of those is a legitimate debt. You are entitled to claim them. But consider that God in heaven has a much larger sheet of much larger “I owe yous” from you to Him. In fact the proportion is shown in a parable (Matthew 18:23ff), Jesus said it is the difference between hundreds of dollars and billions. Now you can hold on to those “I owe yous” if you want. But remember that as long as you hold on to yours, God holds on to His. But God says to you, “I’ll make you a deal. You tear up your ‘I owe yous’ and I will tear up mine.” What a deal! We can let go of a few hundred dollars or thousands, and have billions and billions in debt canceled.
Jesus said in Mark 11:25, “whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
You don’t have to wait for them to come and say I’m sorry I treated you that way. You may have to wait forever for them to do that. You can do it right now. Tear up the “I owe yous.” Decide you won’t hold anything against them any longer. You’re just going to seek the best interest of that person.
Another common blind spot I think would be watching and listening to evil for entertainment.
How many shows on TV today are not full of fornication, murder, lying, vengeance, drunkenness, shameful talk and so forth? Not many. Yet many Christians love those shows and give hours every week to watching them.
I want to hold up the mirror of God’s word and ask you to consider what that looks like to God.
Psalm 97:10, “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” Romans 12:9, “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” Jude 23 “hate even the garment stained by the flesh.” See, we’re to feel about sin like God does. He can’t stand it, it’s abhorrent, repulsive, disgusting to Him and it’s to be sin to us, not something we enjoy watching and are becoming more desensitized to and accepting of it the more we see it.
Isaiah 33:14 raises the question, “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?” The consuming fire is God. He burns up all that’s evil. Who can live with Him? The answer is given in Isaiah 33:15, “He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.” So the one who can dwell with God, so hates evil that he stops his ears from listening to it and shuts his eyes from watching it. He doesn’t enjoy sitting in front of it for entertainment.
Psalm 101:2-4, “I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. 3 I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. 4 A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.” Let’s not bring those of perverse heart and speech and deeds into our living rooms and bedrooms and give them the floor to speak and act as they want in our homes. Let’s keep what’s worthless and perverse far from us.
I know this probably isn’t making us feel good. But it’s more important to me that you and I be saved and please God. Remember Romans 8:5-6, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” It’s vital what we set our minds on.
One more blind spot I’ll mention to watch out for is confidence that you don’t have any blind spots.
A little story from Jesus in Luke 18, beginning with verse 9, “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” There were many sins the Pharisees avoided and a number of things they did right. The problem was, they were very sure they had a rather complete understanding of God’s will and that their lives did not need improvement. That pride kept them from learning, stunted their progress and separated them from God. Let’s stay very open to the possibility that we still have a lot to learn and many changes to make. Being a disciple just means being a learner, we’re someone who’s growing, we continue to be open to God teaching us, and as we learn we continue to repent.
A Story of Repentance
So here’s what I think is the most beautiful moving story about repentance. We’re just going to look at half the story. It’s in Luke 15. Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ [“Dad’s not dying soon enough;” he wants his inheritance now] And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.” How many of us have done that? We just take from the Father, we’re ungrateful, we turn our backs on Him and do what we want… Then it describes what so often happens when we do life our way. “When he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. [And that was the worst if you were Jewish, to have a job feeding pigs…] And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, [And that’s the point we all have to come to; when we see ourself like God sees us and we realize “I have made a mess of my life, doing things my way is not working and this is wrong and foolish.”] he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ That’s what repentance is, that inner decision of “I will arise and go to my Father.” And how do we know it’s true repentance, because the next verse says, “He arose and came to his father.” The inward decision resulted in the outward action of turning his back on his old life and heading the direction of his father. Then Jesus describes how God responds when we make that choice and turn His way, it says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” And you notice the father doesn’t even let him finish what he was going to say; “Treat me like one of your hired servants,” but the father cuts him off even before he can say that. “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
This is the God of heaven. It pays to repent, it’s worth it to repent. So let’s do that if there’s anything we need to repent of today. This is the key to friendship with God and to our welfare as we keep turning to our Father.
-James Williams